Fig Wasp

After yesterday's post(http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/butterflies-and-gall-wasps.html) about the Bedeguar Gall Wasp, here's an interesting little animation about the fig tree and it's relationship with it the fig wasp.

Butterflies And Gall Wasps

Some miscellaneous spots from the last week:

This is the gall of the Bedeguar Gall Wasp, which lays it's eggs in a branch of dog rose (Rosa canine, a native wild rose) and in what Wikipedia describes as 'a way not yet understood', causes the gall pictured here to develop.  Joking aside, the page is quite in depth and interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplolepis_rosae

Meanwhile, I spotted this rather tatty looking Red Admiral feasting on some red valerian in my parent's garden, which was decent enough to stay still long enough to allow me to get my camera out and focused.

Chalk Downland Flowers Spotter's Guide Part One: Purple Flowers

My own, completely arbitrary, guide to telling apart flowers of chalk downland. I'm going by colour first. Basically, chalk downland flowers are all going to be either purple or yellow and then there's a third category of flowers that are neither purple nor yellow. We may get round to yellow and neither purple nor yellow in good time. Maybe.

Just a quick reminder before we go on: chalk downland is generally poor, not very fertile soil and so for that reason suits the flowers listed below. (See http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/over-hills-and-far-away.html for a short description of chalk downland, or click on' chalk downland' in the labels box to the right).

Anyway, here we go:

Knapweed

Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) This is similar to a thistle. I was going to say it was a member of the thistle family but to be properly botanical, it's a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae), which is a pretty substantial family in itself. Knapweed, is part of the genus Centaurea or knapweeds and star thistles, which are thistle-like in appearance but lack actual thistles. Check out the unopened flowerhead to the left, which is very thistle-like in appearance.

A quick dichotomous identity test goes as follows:  does it look like a thistle? If yes, grab it with your bare hand. Does it hurt? If no, then it is part of the genus Centaurea. 

Finally, if it's big and purple then it's greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa). If it's smaller and purple then it's common knapweed (Centaurea nigra).  

Devil's Bit Scabious

Devil's Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis). Similar to knapweed in colour and globular shape but smaller and of a lighter purple, and blending delicately to a white centre. Also note the very prominent stamen's standing proud of the florets. (Translation: the tiny stalks sticking out of the flowers). The whole flower is made up of dozens of tiny little individual florets (pay attention to them, that'll be important with identifying the next flower).

It is part of the much smaller teasel family (Dipsacaceae), despite looking nothing like a teasel. The stem is long and spindly and slightly fuzzy.

According to the latest newsletter of the Dorset Wildlife Trust, the name 'devil's bit' comes from a tale that the devil was jealous of such a pretty flower so bit off it's root out of spite. Or something. Now, that sounds like a load of old cobblers to me: some story an old farm hand made up and told to a victorian flower collector over a few pints of cider. But that's none of my business.

Field Scabious

Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis). Very similar, in fact broadly identical, to devil's bit scabious. The species name is completely different but I've no idea why. It is similar in being a similar paste shade of purple and with the same prominent stamens but, instead of a hemispherical shape, it's flatter and has 'corners', like a four or five pointed star. These are all made up of little florets, like the devil's bit, but these flatten out towards the edges - tight, round and closely packed in the centre but larger and flatter towards the edge.

But don't take my word for it. Here's the always reliable Wikipedia, with a full run down of species classification and everything:

Greater knapweed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_scabiosa

Devil's Bit Scabious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succisa_pratensis
and http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/devils-bit-scabious

Field scabious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knautia_arvensis and http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/field_scabious

What a stamen is, in case you were wondering. Though I'm thinking that you really should have had birds and bees explained to you by now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamen https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Parts_Plants/parts_of_flower.htm

TRIGGER WARNING (contains pictures of spiders)

Now I know some people that read this don't like spiders. My apologies, but these are particularly pretty and slightly exotic spiders, namely the wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) which, as the name hints, is a recent visitor to these shores from the mediterreanian. 

These were all photographed at Bradbury Rings (iron age hill fort, managed by the National Trust as mentioned in the previous couple of posts). Paul, the ranger there, had fairly raved about the wasp spiders there and Elise, who I was busy ragwort pulling with, spotted one. I then spent a very long time kneeling in brambles, trying to persuade my ageing iPhone to focus on a spider's web and eventually got a pic that was in focus.

Here it is:

We spotted a few more of it's (actually her's, as the stripy ones are female) friends and relations around and about, in the 'rings' part of the hill fort, where it is relatively sheltered. By the end of the day it was getting a bit 'meh, there's another one'.

Anyway, I love the name 'wasp spider' - partly a name designed to breed nightmares, partly one of those "What does it look like? Uuuuuh... kinda waspy. Ok, wasp spider, that'll do" sort of species names.

More on wasp spiders: https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs-and-habitats/wasp-spider

http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Summary/s/Argiope+bruennichi

http://www.janvanduinen.nl/argiopebruennichi-engels.php

'Spiders' by System Of A Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZNMvIEHhs

Cows Vs My Car

As I mentioned in yesterday's post (http://punkrockecology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/some-photos-of-chalk-downland-flowers.html), we've been on a bit of species-rich chalk downland this week. Specifically,pulling up ragwort at Bradbury Rings an iron age hill fort managed by the National Trust. 

Ragwort pulling is a conservation favourite. Basically, in the highly unlikely even that you have nothing else to do, you go and pull up some ragwort. Not only is it poisonous to livestock but, if you leave it to it's own devices, it will fill the entire field. There are various ways to get rid of it but the traditional favourite is to just yank it out by hand and this is what we found ourselves doing.

We parked ourselves in the field, with my poor, long suffering, little car finding it's way up a very rutted track. Then, while I was out pulling ragwort, the herd of Gloucester cows that we were sharing the field with wandered over to investigate. I returned at the end of the day to discover that the car was covered in lick marks, having been given a very thorough wash.

More on ragwort: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=299

The spread of the 'bad' ragwort - invasive non-native Oxford ragwort (Scenencio squalidus) - after it's introduction to a botanical garden in Oxford in 1690. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/ecological/genetics/plantgenetics/oxfordragwortstory.html

Some Photos Of Chalk Downland Flowers (Several Of Which Are In Focus)

Some chalk downland flowers, yesterday:

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria).

Red Bartsia (Bartsia odontites)

An Early Bumble Bee (Bombus pratorum) on some Field Scabious (Knautia arvenis). I have no idea why an early bumble bee is called that, although the field scabious was definitely in a field.

Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)

Restharrow (Ononis repens)

Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris).

This was all on Bradbury Rings, an iron age fort now managed by the National Trust. Managed very well on this evidence.

Bat Roost

A couple of slightly rubbish videos of a bat roost near me. Walking the dogs past at dusk, I stopped to film them with my phone. These are the results. 

The phone's battery died just after that and, as these are residential flats, I was worried someone was going to come out and ask just what the hell I was doing.